


Homecoming

by Princesszellie



Series: Prompts and Drabbles [30]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M, Military Family, Teenagers, chaleigh, emo!Chaleigh, family stuff, furlough, good luck, welcome home scott, you have no idea what is going on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6661654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princesszellie/pseuds/Princesszellie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie's Uncle Scott returns from a long deployment overseas throwing the Hansen household into chaos, even before he sets foot on home soil. The happy family reunion causes Raleigh to get lost in the uproar. (More) Angst will no doubt ensue- but tonight they celebrate!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

This certainly was one of the stranger sights he had come home to in a while; and that factored in finding Max on the kitchen table last week. Herc stood in the breezeway door and took in the spectacle of Charlie on his hands and knees, head and shoulders into the bottom half of the refrigerator. There was some very serious scrubbing going on accompanied by grunting over a particularly caked on goo spot. It would be entirely comical if their weekly ration of food wasn’t scattered around on the floor in various piles (presumably by shelf) warming to room temperature in the late summer heat and being investigated with intense interest by the dog.

Also alarming were the two large black bags chocked full of rejected former denizens of the fridge now past the point of ingestion standards of even a teenaged boy. The circumference of the bags did not say good things about their consumption vs. waste ratio.

“Charlie, what are you doing?” he finally asked.

Chuck’s head snapped up and into the wire shelf above it in surprise followed by a muffled curse. “Jesus Dad!” he scowled.   

“Easy killer,” Herc laughed, “What the hell are you doing?” It really was a rhetorical question, he could clearly see _what_ was being done and he knew exactly _why_ , but for some reason it felt important to ask anyway.

Charlie sat on his heels and frowned up at him, “What’s it look like?” There was more of an edge to his typical teenage attitude than usual. His father smiled at him and it only made him more conscious of the ridiculous thing he was doing.

Three days ago Scott had left a hurried call on the answering machine saying he would be coming back to the states after his four year redeployment. The message had left both stateside Hansen’s reeling in surprise and set off a flurry of commotion.

The first night Chuck had stayed up till three a.m. deep cleaning his room, the second afternoon was spent scrubbing every surface of the bathroom until it sparkled like the Vatican, and today was the kitchen- starting with the fridge. Chuck was anxious about seeing Uncle Scott again after so many years, and when he got anxious he cleaned shit.

Herc was aware of this weird particularity of his only child. Often it was quite amusing, but it was also sad. Charlie wasn’t good at expressing his feelings and his love and excitement over Scott’s return had sent him into a housework tailspin. “Charlie, he’s not gonna notice the fridge….” _Or the bathroom or that you alphabetized the DVD collection._

Charlie flushed pink and looked down at the floor in shame. The cleanliness of their living situation would be the _last_ thing Scott noticed. _Oh baby, he won’t see all this…he’s gonna see how tall you are, the scar on your arm from your accident, how you look just like your Mom…the boy you hold hands with…._ Herc said none of that out loud. He couldn’t point fingers.

The evening after they got the good news, Herc had gone out and pulled the dust cover off of Scott’s bike and spent the warm twilight hours polishing and tuning it up. He and Chuck took it on one last shakedown cruise and afterwards they made a silent agreement as the tarp went back on, that the next eyes laid on it would belong its _true_ rider.   

Yeah, but it was really that last thing Scott would notice the most. And where was Raleigh anyway? Usually the little freak was Charlie’s partner in all crimes. The OCD crazy must have driven him off, probably for the best.

Chuck sighed and went back to his chore. Herc grabbed a lukewarm beer off the floor and got a whiff of Max and realized he was in desperate need of a bath. It wouldn’t be hospitable to have him skanking up the joint. “Come on Max,” he called headed for back yard and the hose.

 

Scott had made a slight tactical error. A minor one, but a mistake none the less. In his excitement to get home as soon as humanly possible he had wrangled an earlier flight out of the sandbox; but had neglected to get any word to his brother. A sweet older couple who volunteered rides from the local base had picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at the house. After they hugged him good bye and thanked him _again_ for his service, they left. And about two seconds after Scott stopped waving he realized it was the middle of the day and that neither his brother or nephew would be home.

He went to check the usual spot for the ‘hidden’ spare key but found nothing. A futile search of other likely places Herc would stash the extra were also empty (there was no way he could know that said spare key was now in the possession of one Raleigh Beckett, without Herc’s permission). So with a sigh Scott sat down on the front steps in the blazing heat, listened to Max having a seizure of excitement from the wrong side of the door and lit a cigarette.

And that was how he spent his first afternoon home. The sun was just starting to go down in the western sky as the black SUV pulled into the drive way. Scott woke up from a comfortable doze at the sound of doors slamming. He stood up slowly, stiff from perching on the cement stairs and grinned at the astonished faces of his family.

“Scott?!” Herc gaped stupidly, not understanding why his baby brother was _here_ when they hadn’t gone to collect him yet. Scott wiggled his fingers in greeting and smiled stupidly. It was all of a heart beat before he was being taken to the ground in a full contact tackle by his overly excited brother. The air escaped his lungs in a happy grunt and he allowed Herc to think he could win this fight. A thousand breathless, ecstatic questions poured out of Herc and mostly went unnoticed and unanswered in the scuffle.

“What’s up old man?” Scott laughed shoving Herc off of him. Herc retaliated by cuffing him gently then pulling him to his feet and into a bear hug. Scott held tightly to his beloved brother and when he finally felt he could look up without crying he did, and his eyes fell on the third Hansen present.

Charlie still stood beside the car paralyzed with something very a kin to fear. It was totally childish and unreasonable, but his feelings were all over the place and totally overwhelming. His hands were sweating and shaking; and he wasn’t sure he was breathing. Raleigh stood behind him totally forgotten by everyone, which was fine with Raleigh as he didn’t belong in this deep family moment. He had just been bumming a ride home from school and trying to keep Charlie from cracking under the pressure- clearly he failed that role. 

Scott stared over Herc’s shoulder at the red headed bean pole, wearing ridiculously tight pants, a ratty old flannel shirt (in this heat?) and _his_ combat boots. That could _not_ be the precious little nephew who saw him off that early cold morning on base five years ago, crying and carrying on…

Raleigh gave Chuck a little shove and the other boy stumbled forward a couple steps. “It’s your Uncle,” he hissed and Charlie glared back at him. “Go!”

Chuck took a few tentative steps towards his father and uncle, still wide eyed and weirdly nervous. He had been playing this moment in his head for days and so far it was not at all how he planned. Scott looked exactly the same, but different at the same time. There had been many a grainy Skype session over the deployment, but the fuzzy, glitchy feed wasn’t the best way gauge change.

Scott let go of Herc and stepped towards Charlie in speechless awe. He didn’t understand the deer in the headlight’s look he was getting, but he opened his arms in invitation. He was not disappointed as Charlie took flight and closed the gap between them in two of his soccer star strides and was clinging to him like a koala bear.

“Oh Charlie,” Scott breathed holding him tightly against the sob that broke out of the boys lean, yet surprisingly sturdy frame.

“It’s _Chuck_ now.” Herc snorted from somewhere behind them.

Chuck sniffed in offence, his face buried in Scott’s shoulder. “Not to me,” Scott stroked Charlie’s rakishly cut hair and whispered, “Always my Charlie.”

For some reason that sent Charlie into a fit of ugly, uncontrollable crying. Yeah, this was not at all how he had imagined this panning out. What the hell? So many times Charlie had been afraid that he would never see his uncle again. There had been a couple close calls (that he had been privy too), late night phone calls from officers and anxious looks from his father. The nights he had gone to bed uneasy over a missed Skype and had quietly cried and prayed himself to sleep all seemed so distant now that he was literally being crushed to death by Scott.  

As he clung to Scott, Charlie was startled to feel his uncle’s chest heave; great he was crying too. Now _everyone_ was going to cry- he didn’t dare look at Dad.

Which was for the best because Herc was, in fact, also tearing up watching the reunion of the two things he loved most in the whole world. His blurry vison caught movement over by the car- oh shit he had totally forgotten about Raleigh! The other boy was getting his bag out of the backseat of the truck and quietly shutting the door. His blue eyes met Herc’s and for a minute they held each other’s gaze.  Raleigh was going to slink away home; he didn’t belong here right now. This was a Hansen Family moment; he wasn’t a part of it. No doubt he would have ample opportunity to meet the infamous Uncle Scott but not right now. The plan had been to go unnoticed but _as usual_ Herc ruined that for him.

Now he was forced to give Charlie’s dad a little wave good bye since Charlie himself was busy. Herc nodded and smiled affectionately at Raleigh, forgiving him for an earlier infraction of spilling soda in the car. He was just too emotionally compromised to hold that over the kid; at least for now. He also knew that Raleigh was not comfortable in situations like these and that it was best to give him a dignified way to beat a retreat.

With one last loving look at his boyfriend Raleigh shouldered his book and counter culture pin laden backpack. He was so happy for Charlie; he had been waiting a long time to see Scott again. His excitement the last seventy-two hours had been almost too painful to bear, even for Raleigh, but it was comforting to see that this story had a happy ending. Although, as he walked home in the growing dusk, Raleigh had the weird sinking feeling that he was about to take a drop on Charlie’s priority list. That was a displeasing thought.

 Herc had finally released Max, who after releasing his bladder (because _priorities_ ), had begun racing circles around Scott and Charlie. Scott had Charlie’s face in both of his hands and was peering into those green eyes and running mascara- which were now at almost _his_ eye level. Jesus, this kid had grown! He had a million questions, starting with the makeup, but words were still too hard to find in all his happiness.

“Come on boys, let’s go inside,” Herc said. Damn that felt good to say, and he wasn’t even ashamed of the crack in his voice. He gently rounded up the ‘boys’, human and canine, and ushered them into Charlie’s spotless house. All the uncertainties of distance and war were gone and the Hansen’s were a family once again.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took so long....its HORSE SHOW SEASON!! and also had some serious writers block. I promise to be better now...I think it's mostly gone. 
> 
> That being said I would love some prompts- for this 'verse or just in general. I need to jump start my poor frazzled brain!
> 
> I love Scott Hansen. I have written him every way to Sunday and I never get tired of him. I think hes going to be a fun foil for poor soon to be neglected Raleigh. Our emo friend wont like having to compete for his Charlie's attention. And Scott will be both amused and horrified by Raleigh/Chuck and their general weirdness. Herc will pray for death. ;)


End file.
